SNP and Scottish Green party membership has surged as women and working-class voters demand change

Last Friday, having spent a long night at a count in Falkirk, I whiled away a bleary-eyed afternoon on George Square in Glasgow. Though the day would end with ugly scenes as packs of pro-union thugs appeared, in the afternoon peaceful yes supporters had the place to themselves.

Soon enough, the defiant Twitter hashtag the45 (as in percent) would be in full effect, but at that point, a sense of sadness and lost opportunity was inescapable; at times, what with the vulture-like presence of the Socialist Workers party and the odd person getting lost in conspiracy theory, the whole thing threatened to put me in mind of the decline phase of the Occupy movement. That said, there were also sparks of vitality, usually of the kind one doesnt find at, say, a Labour party conference: it sounds unlikely, but a massed out-of-tune version of the Proclaimers hit Im Gonna Be (500 Miles) brimmed with an infectious sense of defianceand purpose.